ANXIETY DISORDERS

Anxiety

Anxiety is feeling worried. It can range from mild to severe and can include the feelings of worry and fear. There are various conditions that can cause serious worry, including phobias – extreme or irrational fears of an object or animal, place, situation, or emotion.

Anxiety Disorders

In the diagnostic system of Psychiatry, the Anxiety Disorders are distinguished into individual clinical entities, such as:

Panic Disorder

Specific Phobias such as agoraphobia or claustrophobia

Post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)

Social anxiety disorder (Social phobia),and

Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD)

Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD)

Everybody has feelings of anxiety at some point in their lives. For example, you may feel worried in the case of exams at school, or before a medical exam or at a job interview. In these moments, the feeling of anxiety can be quite natural. However, some people find it difficult to withstand their worries, some feelings such as their anxiety are more constant and persistent and may often affect their everyday life.

GAD is a long-term condition that makes you feel anxious in a wide range of situations, conditions and issues, instead for just one specific fact or event.

People with GAD feel anxious most of the days and often have difficulties remembering the last time they felt relaxed. The moment one anxious thought goes away, another one can occur for a different matter.

GAD can cause both psychological and physical symptoms. These can vary from person to person, but can include: feeling worried, concentration or sleep problems, dizziness or palpitations.

The symptoms of Generalized Anxiety Disorder

The Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) can affect you both physically and mentally. Some people have just one or two symptoms, while others have many more.

Psychological symptoms of GAD

GAD can cause a change in your behavior and the way you think and feel about things, which results to symptoms such as: worry, fear, a feeling of being constantly distant from things, concentration problems, irritability. Your symptoms can possibly make you withdraw from your social contacts in order to avoid feeling worried and trembling. These actions can make you afterwards feel more worried about yourself and increase the lack of your self-esteem.

The exact cause of GAD is not fully understandable, although it is possible that a combination of many factors plays a part. Research has shown that these factors can include:

hyperactivity in areas of the brain that are involved in the emotions and behavior

an imbalance of chemical substances of the brain, serotonin and noradrenaline, which are involved in the control and regulation of the mood

a part played by the genes. People with a first degree relative with GAD have five times the chance of developing GAD themselves than other people

medical history of stressful or traumatic experiences, such as domestic violence, child abuse or intimidation

medical history of chronic pain, drug or alcohol abuse

However, many people develop GAD without any apparent reason.GAD is a common disease, and it is estimated that it regards up to 5% of the population, with a slightly higher percentage in women, and its presence is more frequent in people of age between 35 and 59 years.

Treatment of the Generalized Anxiety Disorder

GAD may have a significant effect in your everyday life, however, many different treatments are available in order to relieve you of your symptoms. These include:

psychological therapy, such as the cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT)

medicines, such as a type of antidepressants that are called selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs)

There are also many other things that you can do to yourselves that can help you reduce your anxiety, such as: self-help books, regular aerobic exercise, quitting smoking and reducing the quantities of alcohol and caffeine you drink.

Your goal must be to do at least 150 minutes of moderate intensity exercise every week, which will increase your heart rate and make you breathe faster.

Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT)

The cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is one of the most effective treatments for GAD. Studies of the various treatments for GAD have shown that the benefits of CBT can last longer than the ones of medicines. CBT helps us understand how our problems, thoughts, feelings and behavior affect each other. It can also help your stressful thoughts, and make you do things that you usually avoided before, because they make you worry.

The CBT usually includes a meeting with a specially trained and certified therapist for a one hour session every week for four to six months.